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Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art

Deco skyscraper in New York City, United States, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It is 1,250 ft (381 meters) tall. Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City. The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned and managed by W&H Properties. The Empire State Building is currently the third tallest skyscraper in the United States (after theWillis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, both in Chicago), and the 15th tallest in the world. It is also the fourth tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. The Empire State Building is currently undergoing a $550 million renovation, with $120 million utilized in an effort to transform the building into a more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure.

Construction The Empire State Building is built on a full city block. Much of it was occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which opened in November 1897 as the city's largest hotel with 1050 rooms. It was one the most prestigious in New York and attracted an upper-class clientele. At the end of the 1920s however, the grand and plush design of the hotel had gone out of style and Waldorf-Astoria decided to build a new,

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After the site was cleared, construction started March 17, 1930. Thanks to an efficient design and standardized work - similar to an assembly line - the building would rise at an average of about four and a half floors a week, faster than any other skyscraper at the time. The building was officially inaugurated on May 1, 1931 in the presence of governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Design The Empire State Building was designed by William Frederick Lamb of the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon. Lamb, influenced by Raymond Hood's Daily News building, came up with a fairly simple design, defined by requirements such as the budget, time limit and New York City's 1916 zoning law. The building would have a classical composition of a 5 story base, a large tower with setbacks (required by the city's zoning law)

and a monumental spire. The limestone facade had little or no ornamentation. What makes the design so great is that for all its simplicity and sheer bulk it has a perfect composition and massing, giving the building a certain grandeur.

Spire The building is topped by an enormous spire. It was designed as a mooring mast and would enable dirigibles such as zeppelins to anchor at the top of the building so that passengers could embark or disembark. This proved to be very unpractical however due to the instability of zeppelins and after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 the idea was shelved.

Great Depression The Empire State Building was one of the last skyscrapers completed in New York before the Great Depression hit the real estate market. Demolition of the existing building at the site started just weeks before the stock market crash of 1929. After 1933 - with the construction of Rockefeller Center - no tall skyscraper would be built in the city for almost two decades.

As a consequence the Empire State Building held its title of the world's tallest building for more than 40 years. But the Great Depression also caused a collapse in the demand for office space. The owners had such a difficult time leasing office space that the building became known as the 'Empty State Building'. It would take until the end of the 1940s before the real estate market was fully recovered and in the early 1950s the Empire State Building even became the most profitable building in New York City.

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